We need a Green New Deal
By
Norman Solomon
Read Spanish Version
From
Truthout.org
In
the Arctic, sea ice is melting. In the United States, houses are
foreclosing.
And
in Washington, the Senate is becoming a real-life Bermuda Triangle
for progressive agendas.
Proposals
for major limits on carbon emissions aren’t getting far in the
Senate, where the corporate war on the environment has an abundance
of powerful allies.
As
for class war, it continues to rage from the top down. Last week, a
dozen Democratic senators teamed up with Republicans to defeat a bill
that would have allowed judges to reduce mortgages in bankruptcy
courts.
President
Obama supported that bill. But as The Associated Press reported, he
was "facing stiff opposition from banks" and "did
little to pressure lawmakers" on behalf of the measure. The
Senate "defeated a plan to spare hundreds of thousands of
homeowners from foreclosure through bankruptcy."
Big-money
vultures are circling the Capitol dome to feast on the latest
multibillion-dollar carrion, whether under the heading of "cap
and trade" or "health care reform." And many billions
in profits can be found inside yet another supplemental bill to fund
war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile,
a familiar pattern is unfolding for the most important piece of labor
legislation in decades – the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) – which
would go a long way toward protecting the rights of workers to form
unions. Obama says he supports EFCA. But there are no signs that
he’ll go all-out for its passage.
There
are pluses and minuses on Capitol Hill these days. But on big-picture
items, it’s clear that environmentalists and labor rights activists
are mostly up against the corporate wall – and the wall is not
yielding.
We
need a Green New Deal.
It
won’t happen without a lot more effective grassroots coalitions –
strong and sustained enough to change power relations for the long
haul. But acculturation in the USA often encourages us to think along
the lines of solo acts.
There’s
the old American story about the solitary Dutch boy who discovers
that a dike has sprung a leak. He inserts his finger, hangs in there
heroically by himself and saves the town.
But
in the real world, individual heroics are a fool’s gold when compared
to the genuine value of building political movements. The immense
obstacles to effective grassroots organizing can be overcome: not by
lone rangers, but by persistent organizers and coalition-builders.
During
the last six months, I’ve participated in a lengthy series of
meetings with many other local activists. Across two counties in
Northern California, we’re about to launch a long-term project called
the Green
New Deal for the North Bay.
It’s
just a start. But, as we begin a round of public forums throughout
the region, we’re in the process of developing a grassroots agenda
for far-reaching change that will address these two key questions:
"How
can we create a sustainable green future that includes economic
equity and social justice?"
"How
can agendas for economic rights and environmental protection become
more integrated and more successful?"
Seventy-five
years after the start of the New Deal, and nearly 40 years after the
first Earth Day, the need for basic change on behalf of social
justice and ecology is clear.
But
ideas are the easy part. In an era of massive environmental damage
and vast economic inequality, we’ve got to organize.
Norman
Solomon, co-chair of the national Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign, is
the author of many books, including "War
Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death."
In California, he is co-chair of the Commission on a Green
New Deal for the North Bay.
